By Geoff Crane
Stampeders.com

Three games into his return and Calgary Stampeders running back Jon Cornish appears to have not missed a beat.

After suffering a concussion in Calgary’s season-opener that placed the CFL’s 2013 Most Outstanding Player on the six-game injured list, Cornish looked to be a longshot to repeat as the rushing champ.

But with offensive numbers down league-wide, Cornish returned to the lineup against Ottawa in Week 9 and has since galloped his name right back into the rushing-title conversation.

Currently, the Stamps’ feature back sits a mere 210 yards behind the current leader — Winnipeg’s Nic Grigsby — with approximately half the rushing attempts.

“Some people might be surprised,” says Cornish when talking about his swift climb up the statistical leaderboard. “Offensive totals are down throughout the league and it’s a slightly different game this year. Keeping track of that, I’m not really surprised and I knew I would still be in contention when I returned from my injury.”

To put in perspective the dominance Cornish has displayed in his return, one merely needs to look at his averages. Amongst players with 50 or more rushing attempts, Cornish is tied with injured Edmonton tailback John White with 6.5 yards per carry. He also sports a pristine yards per-game average of 103.3 — the next best again is White with 83.5.

However, the CFL’s Top Canadian for a second straight week is quick to share the credit for his gaudy numbers to this point of the season.

“The offensive line is doing a superb job,” says Cornish, showing some love for his men up front. “But I would say it’s more of I’m just being part of a system.”

That system is the one implemented by head coach John Hufnagel and offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Dave Dickenson. Cornish says the system is blessed with top-talent players willing to play any role given to them.

“That’s why you can take out any one of them and plug in somebody else and still have a successful unit,” says Cornish. “In the big picture, though, I think we are a very talented offensive group that can only get better.”

And there has been improvement in Calgary’s offensive production as the season has gone on. It’s no coincidence those numbers have grown since Cornish returned to action, logging 368 yards in average total offence compared to 340 yards prior to Cornish’s return. In that same span, the defence has been able to keep the opponent total offence virtually the same at 296 yards average.

The trends look to be in Calgary’s favour if Cornish can manage to stay healthy the rest of the way. For his part, the Red and White’s rusher says it is all a matter of listening to his body.

“I stopped thinking of 100 per cent as a real thing,” he says. “ A lot of people have this idea of how their body should feel but rather than thinking about how it should feel, I’ve embraced how it does feel and I operate within that and I’ve found I have success with that.”

If the last three games are any indicator, Cornish is feeling good, which bodes well for the Stamps going into a difficult second half of the season as they square off against their fellow West Division squads in what is sure to be a grudge match to the playoffs.